日本文化体験 庵an京都 / AN KYOTO Japanese Culture Experience — Attraction in Kyoto

The whole experience was a bit sad.

We booked the Show via Klook on 24Mar and paid for First Row for 6 of us and thought it's confirmed.

We arrived Kyoto on 8Apr, ready for the show on 10Apr. Then we got an Email in the evening of 8Apr saying the First Row (and also 2nd and 3rd) are fully booked. Also informed on 9Apr that there will be around 40 ppl in the room, and we'll get seated at 8th-9th row.

With only 1 day before the show, it's either a go or no. No other options for us. So of course we had to proceed and had fun with the only option we had.

I personally had a great dinner experience with Maiko in Gion back in 2019, in a nice traditional house, so I do have something to compare to.

But hearing the story now (on the Show) saying the number of Maiko reduced drastically 3-4 times during COVID 19 and only left with around 60 Maiko in Kyoto made me understand the situation very well, so I am not feeling mad about it at all but just a bit sad. The company I booked last time also is closed down as per my understanding.

So I'm writing this Review just for the other Foreigners to understand the current situation and know what to expect.

This Show you are about to book is arranged in a building on a street side, not at a Gion area as before. And the set up is in a Conference Room set up. If you are lucky, there may be less people. But for our case, they also mixed up with a Tea Ceremony Experience. So some will do the Tea, some will do thr Dinner, which is a bit awkward.

But if you still want the true Maiko experience in Gion area, there is still a company operating it, for your own Private Group. And the Price is around 4 times more.

So for our Situation this time for my group of 4 Parents and my wife, I think the show is good enough. Only the Problem is that we could not get the Front Rows Seating as expected.

And to the Japanese Team, I know that maintaining the Maiko/Geiko Culture is becoming more and more difficult, but I want to encourage you to keep this culture alive.

It's a beautiful part of Kyoto's charm, and one of the most beautiful...

Quite disappointed and shocked by this experience. For me, it was the most malicious and the most eager to make money without worrying about the quality of the service.

At first I was very disappointed to see how it was organized: in a room that was too big and divided in two for the same course with two different teachers.

There were around thirty of us and it was way too noisy. Our teacher had to use a microphone.

I was poorly guided during the making of the candies which disintegrated. The teacher just ignored it instead of helping me redo them.

I have motor problems with my hands (and it shows because my hands are shaking) so I dropped a piece of rice paste. Once again the teacher ignored me to the point that she no longer spoke to me during class.

I didn't understand why she was doing that, accidents happen. After 10 minutes I ask if I can have half a rice paste and the teacher tells me that if I want a second one I have to pay. I explain that it's because I unfortunately dropped it on the floor and can no longer use it. She replies dryly, “So you don’t want ?”

I was really shocked that she didn't prepare anything in case of accidents and you just have to pay. I do cooking workshops in all the countries I visit and this is the first time that I have been asked to pay for 5 grams of rice paste that I dropped because of my tremors.

At the very end I decide to use the other half of the dough to make small cakes. But the teacher urges me to go to the other room and I tell her I'm coming.

There, she goes to see her colleagues and out loud she says degrading and racist things towards me. Without knowing that I understand japanese...

I was really shocked and really wanted to leave the class before the end.

Is it worth hurting a customer for just 5 grams of rice paste and ignoring them?

I wrote a report to...

This was by far the most disappointing event I’ve attended in Japan, and especially in Kyoto. The low ticket price should have been a warning — the venue is tiny, poorly decorated, badly lit, and cluttered with their own advertising banners, making it impossible to take a proper photo of the maiko without ads in the background.

All the different ticket options (tea with a maiko, dinner with a maiko, games with a maiko, etc.) are squeezed into the same space. Some people are eating, others are doing a tea ceremony — it feels completely chaotic. Out of the 37 minutes in total, the first 10 were wasted with the moderator simply asking where each group of 20 guests came from.

Meanwhile, staff are constantly running around serving food, tea, or hot water, so if you’re sitting further back you can’t even see or hear what’s going on.

The tea ceremony itself was very disappointing: the matcha was poor quality, the cups weren’t warmed, and there was no explanation or demonstration of how to properly whisk. It all felt extremely superficial.

As for the interaction with the maiko, the questions were very basic, and there was no introduction or explanation about who maiko are or the tradition behind them. After just a handful of questions, the moderator abruptly ended the session and rushed us into taking photos.

In the end, the whole experience lasted just 37 minutes and felt like a complete waste of time and money. With so many other cultural activities available in Japan, I strongly recommend skipping this one and looking for a more authentic...